First, find a beautiful piece of fish

  • By Sue Ade
  • Tuesday, July 12, 2016 5:00pm
  • LifeFood

To make Baked Summer Grouper with Tomato-Basil Cream Sauce you’ve got to first find a top rate piece of fish. With grouper being pricey, you’ll also want to be sure you’re getting what you’re paying for, so when you make your selection, do so from a source that you can trust. (Did you know that the three top mislabeled species of fish are grouper, salmon and red snapper? Even the experts are often fooled.) The grouper pictured here came from the White Shrimp Company Seafood Market on St. Helena Island (843-838-7525) and was as good a piece of grouper as I’ve enjoyed anywhere, at home or in a restaurant.

Unless we catch it ourselves, it’s always a good idea to give fish the sniff test before we take it home, especially when purchasing fillets, when you can’t inspect the fish’s eyes, which should be clear and bright, or the gills, where pink or red and not dried are virtuous things. Plainly said, the fish should not smell “fishy,” but like the ocean. (The ocean does not smell like ammonia – a sign your fish is not fresh and has begun to decompose. And yes, this is as undesirable as it sounds.) Assuming you’re shopping with a reputable fishmonger and the fish smells like a day at the beach, you’ll also want your fish fillets to be of good color (no yellowing or browning) and moist looking, as well.

When you go to all the trouble of selecting as near perfect seafood as you possibly can, be certain whatever other ingredients you are planning to use in your recipe is of equal quality. But with fish dishes, of course, it all starts with the fish. So first, find a beautiful piece of fish.

 

 

More in Life

John Messick’s “Compass Lines” is displayed at the Kenai Peninsula College Bookstore in Soldotna, Alaska on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Messick reflects on path forward in ‘Compass Lines’

“Compass Lines,” a new book by John Messick, a local writer and… Continue reading

Keanu Reeves portrays John Wick in "John Wick: Chapter 4." (Photo courtesy Lionsgate)
On the Screen: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ goes out on top

In the showstopping, approximately 40-minute long, third-act action sequence of “John Wick:… Continue reading

Will Morrow (courtesy)
Springing ahead

I’m not ready to spring ahead

Murder suspect William Dempsey is pictured shortly after he was captured on the outskirts of Seward in early September 1919. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 8

Dempsey spent more than a decade attempting to persuade a judge to recommend him for executive clemency

Promotional image via the Performing Arts Society
Saturday concert puts jazz, attitude on stage

Lohmeyer is a former local music teacher

The author holds a copy of Greta Thunberg’s, “No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference,” inside the Peninsula Clarion building on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Off the Shelf: Thunberg speeches pack a punch

“No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference” is a compilation of 16 essays given by the climate activist

White chocolate cranberry cake is served with fresh cranberries. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
Hard-to-ruin cranberry cake

This white chocolate cranberry cake is easy to make and hard to ruin — perfect for my students aged 3, 6, 7 and 7.

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)
Life in the Pedestrian Lane: It’s March

March is the trickster month, probably why we see so much raven activity these days

After Pres. Woodrow Wilson commuted his death sentence to life in prison, William Dempsey (inmate #3572) was delivered from Alaska to the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island, Wash. These were his intake photos. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 7

The opening line of Dempsey’s first letter to Bunnell — dated March 19, 1926 — got right to the point

Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel in “The Last of Us.” (Photo courtesy HBO)
On the Screen: ‘The Last of Us’ perfectly adapts a masterpiece

HBO unquestionably knew they had a hit on their hands

Chocolate cake is topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
A cake topped with love (and white chocolate cream cheese)

He loved the frosting so much he said he never wants anything else on his cake

In 1914, Pres. Woodrow Wilson appointed Charles Bunnell to be the judge of the Federal District Court for the Third and Fourth divisions of the Alaska Territory. (Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks archives)
A Nexus of Lives and Lies: The William Dempsey story — Part 6

Prosecution lawyers were fortunate to have a fallback plan: witnesses to the crime.